To submit or not submit? That is the question….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also depends on their HS average. If their HS has a much lower average then the strengthens it. The admissions officer will see that they did better than should be expected from their HS.

Honestly, this decision has to be made by school. It is not a cut and dry formula.


Some admissions officers for some schools will not take the time for this analysis.

For some colleges, it’s a simple question of whether or not the score is above the 50th percentile, or not. When you look at AO scoring rubrics, you can see how submitting a score below the 50th percentile causes an overall scoring deficit. Hard to overcome that = auto reject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It no longer matters what we think a ‘good score’ is. I. The world of TO, the colleges are competing with each other’s published scores, which are skewed because of TO.
If the score helps the published median, submit.
If it does not, do not submit.

This is bad advice. Was only true for certain types of students anyway, but to assume this upcoming cycle like past cycle or two a mistake. Schools already have been showing signs of being test aware last cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would submit. 1460 is a really good score and schools will infer a lower one if you go TO.

Agree with this. Also, as more students submit SATs, the medians will come down a bit.

DS had no luck with a slightly higher test score (1490) at many of these same schools, this last cycle. When applying test optional got in everywhere, including Ivy.

I’d critically examine your schools naviance data and make a decision individually by school.

Note - we are at a private HS.

This is not useful other than to direct to naviance. Generally local public school grades don’t translate to local private school grades. Further, this next cycle is going to be hostile to test optional than prior years. My guess is that Ivy is either Columbia or Cornell ( which is test aware this cycle).

The colleges the OP mentioned - Michigan, Emory, and BC are not hostile to TO for 2025.

Stop with the misinformation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do we think that the admissions officers are going to know that the digital SAT was harder? Or, are they still going to expect to see paper level scores? I am not sure that that excepted student test scores are going to go down for 2025.

Just curious if there is any evidence scores were in fact lower for the digital SAT or this is just anecdotal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It no longer matters what we think a ‘good score’ is. I. The world of TO, the colleges are competing with each other’s published scores, which are skewed because of TO.
If the score helps the published median, submit.
If it does not, do not submit.

This is bad advice. Was only true for certain types of students anyway, but to assume this upcoming cycle like past cycle or two a mistake. Schools already have been showing signs of being test aware last cycle.

You are wrong. Try to understand nuance.
You’re the same poster who comes on here railing about test scores every week.

I agree that in a few years test optional will be totally gone. But for the next cycle, some schools will still heavily favor test optional to shape their class. Especially those in the bottom half of T25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would submit. 1460 is a really good score and schools will infer a lower one if you go TO.

Agree with this. Also, as more students submit SATs, the medians will come down a bit.

DS had no luck with a slightly higher test score (1490) at many of these same schools, this last cycle. When applying test optional got in everywhere, including Ivy.

I’d critically examine your schools naviance data and make a decision individually by school.

Note - we are at a private HS.

This is not useful other than to direct to naviance. Generally local public school grades don’t translate to local private school grades. Further, this next cycle is going to be hostile to test optional than prior years. My guess is that Ivy is either Columbia or Cornell ( which is test aware this cycle).

The colleges the OP mentioned - Michigan, Emory, and BC are not hostile to TO for 2025.

Stop with the misinformation.

You couldn’t possibly know this. Clearly the tide is turning against test optional, and this cycle will be different than last.

[Anonymous]

To me, the weaker link is not having good teacher recs. My kids went to JR and had no problem getting outstanding teacher recs because they were close to several teachers.

[Anonymous]

Our private started highly encouraging submitting test scores last cycle and got very good results, for what it’s worth. Same advice from them for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would submit. 1460 is a really good score and schools will infer a lower one if you go TO.

Agree with this. Also, as more students submit SATs, the medians will come down a bit.

DS had no luck with a slightly higher test score (1490) at many of these same schools, this last cycle. When applying test optional got in everywhere, including Ivy.

I’d critically examine your schools naviance data and make a decision individually by school.

Note - we are at a private HS.

This is not useful other than to direct to naviance. Generally local public school grades don’t translate to local private school grades. Further, this next cycle is going to be hostile to test optional than prior years. My guess is that Ivy is either Columbia or Cornell ( which is test aware this cycle).

The colleges the OP mentioned - Michigan, Emory, and BC are not hostile to TO for 2025.

Stop with the misinformation.

You couldn’t possibly know this. Clearly the tide is turning against test optional, and this cycle will be different than last.

Based on the data and what we see at our school this year, yes I do know this.

Ask the AO rep. They will tell your kid whether or not to submit a score below the 50th%. Do not ask in writing, only in person or by phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me, the weaker link is not having good teacher recs. My kids went to JR and had no problem getting outstanding teacher recs because they were close to several teachers.

This is good advice. And generally counts for much more than test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It no longer matters what we think a ‘good score’ is. I. The world of TO, the colleges are competing with each other’s published scores, which are skewed because of TO.
If the score helps the published median, submit.
If it does not, do not submit.

This is bad advice. Was only true for certain types of students anyway, but to assume this upcoming cycle like past cycle or two a mistake. Schools already have been showing signs of being test aware last cycle.

You are wrong. Try to understand nuance.
You’re the same poster who comes on here railing about test scores every week.

I agree that in a few years test optional will be totally gone. But for the next cycle, some schools will still heavily favor test optional to shape their class. Especially those in the bottom half of T25.

I’m not actually, and I would bet that there are many posters who favor use of test scores here. College consultants are the ones saying that things are not static and test scores matter more this cycle than last, and mattered more last cycle than the one before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would submit. 1460 is a really good score and schools will infer a lower one if you go TO.

Agree with this. Also, as more students submit SATs, the medians will come down a bit.

DS had no luck with a slightly higher test score (1490) at many of these same schools, this last cycle. When applying test optional got in everywhere, including Ivy.

I’d critically examine your schools naviance data and make a decision individually by school.

Note - we are at a private HS.

This is not useful other than to direct to naviance. Generally local public school grades don’t translate to local private school grades. Further, this next cycle is going to be hostile to test optional than prior years. My guess is that Ivy is either Columbia or Cornell ( which is test aware this cycle).

The colleges the OP mentioned - Michigan, Emory, and BC are not hostile to TO for 2025.

Stop with the misinformation.

You couldn’t possibly know this. Clearly the tide is turning against test optional, and this cycle will be different than last.

Based on the data and what we see at our school this year, yes I do know this.

Ask the AO rep. They will tell your kid whether or not to submit a score below the 50th%. Do not ask in writing, only in person or by phone.

The past is not predictive of the future especially on this issue. It’s literally been slightly different every cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It no longer matters what we think a ‘good score’ is. I. The world of TO, the colleges are competing with each other’s published scores, which are skewed because of TO.
If the score helps the published median, submit.
If it does not, do not submit.

This is bad advice. Was only true for certain types of students anyway, but to assume this upcoming cycle like past cycle or two a mistake. Schools already have been showing signs of being test aware last cycle.

You are wrong. Try to understand nuance.
You’re the same poster who comes on here railing about test scores every week.

I agree that in a few years test optional will be totally gone. But for the next cycle, some schools will still heavily favor test optional to shape their class. Especially those in the bottom half of T25.

I’m not actually, and I would bet that there are many posters who favor use of test scores here. College consultants are the ones saying that things are not static and test scores matter more this cycle than last, and mattered more last cycle than the one before.

I think it truly depends on the school.

Yes ofc it matters more this past cycle at certain schools than it did before and I guarantee it will matter more at certain other schools next cycle… We know what those are. Dartmouth, Yale, Brown. And more ivies/T10.

But a lot of schools have intentionally not come out and said they are even test aware. Why? These schools are typically T15-T25 or lower and they have really benefited from test optional. That’s what our private College Counselor has told us.
The decision to submit scores is based on thorough data analysis. Not an automatic reflex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would submit. 1460 is a really good score and schools will infer a lower one if you go TO.

Agree with this. Also, as more students submit SATs, the medians will come down a bit.

DS had no luck with a slightly higher test score (1490) at many of these same schools, this last cycle. When applying test optional got in everywhere, including Ivy.

I’d critically examine your schools naviance data and make a decision individually by school.

Note - we are at a private HS.

This is not useful other than to direct to naviance. Generally local public school grades don’t translate to local private school grades. Further, this next cycle is going to be hostile to test optional than prior years. My guess is that Ivy is either Columbia or Cornell ( which is test aware this cycle).

The colleges the OP mentioned - Michigan, Emory, and BC are not hostile to TO for 2025.

Stop with the misinformation.

You couldn’t possibly know this. Clearly the tide is turning against test optional, and this cycle will be different than last.

Based on the data and what we see at our school this year, yes I do know this.

Ask the AO rep. They will tell your kid whether or not to submit a score below the 50th%. Do not ask in writing, only in person or by phone.

Willing to bet that you are the pro test optional poster who is not local. Kids who submitted test scores have done far better at our local private than those choosing test optional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, the weaker link is not having good teacher recs. My kids went to JR and had no problem getting outstanding teacher recs because they were close to several teachers.

This is good advice. And generally counts for much more than test scores.

+100
The LOR guides from all of these online college resources have definitely gotten lengthier (bios; narrative shaping etc).